Quirmbach defends attacks before primary

Local Democratic voters will decide Tuesday whether to give state Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, a shot at a fourth term this fall against Republican Jeremy Davis, a former Ames city councilman.

Local Democratic voters will decide Tuesday whether to give state Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, a shot at a fourth term this fall against Republican Jeremy Davis, a former Ames city councilman.

Their alternative is the untested Ames community volunteer Cynthia Oppedal Paschen, who has drawn the support of residents who would like to see more women in the state Legislature, are generally adverse to lengthy incumbencies and believe Quirmbach’s approach to lawmaking has been too abrasive.

Both candidates have longstanding ties to the Ames community and largely agree on the issues, but only Quirmbach has a record to run on, as both a state senator and former city councilman.

"People have been talking about what’s wrong with Herman Quirmbach since the ’90s," said Paschen, who has been active in Democratic politics for years and said she first encountered the senator during a women’s fundraiser he crashed for one of then-Secretary of State Elaine Baxter’s failed bids for Congress in the early 1990s.

Paschen, 53, is Quirmbach’s first primary opponent since 2002, the year he was originally elected to the Senate. She decided to seek public office for the first time, she said, when it became clear to her that no one else was interested in challenging him.

"My opponent, having once pledged a campaign of ‘civility,’ has chosen instead to end the campaign with a desperate series of last-minute personal attacks," Quirmbach said in response to the criticism. "My campaign will not follow that road."

When he announced his reelection bid in January, Quirmbach, 63, vowed to run a positive campaign centered on raising the minimum wage, expanding access to preschool education and continuing to advocate for the interests of ISU.

Quirmbach displayed his wide-ranging knowledge of legislative affairs during a candidate’s forum in May hosted by the Ames League of Women Voters.

He rapped off his various accomplishments, delving into details about legislation he’d supported relating to civil rights and the minimum wage; Paschen’s answers were far briefer, and she even deferred a question about the Board of Regents to Quirmbach, admitting she was unfamiliar with the issue.

"What I have is institutional knowledge," said Paschen, who acknowledged that she would have a lot to learn at the Capitol. "I know all this stuff about Ames, all this stuff about people who live in Ames."

As incumbents often do, Quirmbach has easily outmatched Paschen in fundraising and endorsements, which have come from unions; state lawmakers including Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque; and retiring Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

Paschen, who worked for Harkin’s campaign when he was first elected to the Senate in 1984, has objected to the state Democratic Party’s involvement in the primary and suggested Quirmbach’s late endorsements may suggest he is nervous about Tuesday’s outcome.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he couldn’t think of a time when the state party hadn’t sided with an incumbent in a primary, adding that the party had conducted no internal polling on the race — certainly none that would suggest Quirmbach is vulnerable.

"It sounds like you have an aggrieved primary candidate that’s complaining," Gronstal said. "That’s all I hear."

In any event, Paschen has scored several notable endorsements too, from four faculty members of ISU’s Economics Department where Quirmbach teaches; former state Rep. Bill Bernau, D-Ames; and Quirmbach’s predecessor, former state Sen. Johnie Hammond, D-Ames.

"Most of the time, Herman votes the way that I would have voted, but I believe Cindy would be a much better listener to her constituents," said Hammond, who supported Quirmbach’s primary opponent, Ames resident Karen Bolluyt, in 2002.

Hammond’s statement echoed one Paschen made after she announced her campaign in February.

They hint at underlying tensions surrounding Quirmbach that Paschen has avoided addressing directly during most of her campaign but that others, such as Ames resident Frances Wilke, are more blunt about.

Wilke, who clerked for Quirmbach during part of his second term, said the senator had a "haughty demeanor" and "constantly lectured to his colleagues in the Senate."

To Quirmbach’s critics, the most visible example of that came during a Senate floor discussion last year.

Quirmbach, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, asked freshman Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, to define terms in her amendment to an education bill in a manner Republicans decried as condescending and part of a pattern of poor treatment of female colleagues.

Quirmbach and Gronstal subsequently apologized to Sinclair, who has donated $25 to Jeremy Davis’ campaign and said she wouldn’t mind seeing Paschen win the Democratic primary.

But Sinclair added that she held no grudges against Quirmbach, noting that the two had worked together this year passing a bill to help dyslexic Iowans.

Other colleagues of Quirmbach’s, past and present, said they have enjoyed a positive working relationship with him.

They include Judie Hoffman, who served with Quirmbach on the City Council and has commended him for his leadership there in passing the state’s first local smoking ban ordinance. (The ban was eventually overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court, but Quirmbach later helped pass the state’s Smokefree Air Act of 2008.)

"Quirmbach has represented the people of his district well and deserves another term," Hoffman said.

Ames environmentalist Erv Klaas, a professor emeritus of animal ecology at ISU, agreed, commending Quirmbach for his efforts on the council to establish Ada Hayden Heritage Park and advocacy in the Legislature for economic and education reforms.

Klaas, who worked on Quirmbach’s first two state Senate campaigns, said he’d heard rumors about his alleged hectoring attitude, "but I give them no credibility."

"I think Cindy will have a harder time defeating Jeremy Davis than Herman because she doesn’t have a record," Klaas said. "I think we would lose that leadership if she would win, and I just don’t think it would be good for the state, or particularly our district."

Paschen said she believed either candidate would beat Davis in their Senate District 23, where active Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by more than 2,000 (but where both are outnumbered by the district’s roughly 13,000 independent voters).

In the primary, Paschen has also attempted to capitalize on mixed opinions about Quirmbach among his colleagues at ISU.

John Beghin, an economics professor and neighbor of Paschen’s, is one of four faculty members in the department publicly supporting Paschen.

He criticized so-called continuous improvement legislation to assess student learning that a number of ISU faculty members believe is overburndensome and redundant but that Quirmbach supported.

Dr. Hector Avalos, a professor of religious studies, shared Beghin’s sentiments on the issue but is supporting Quirmbach.

"Paschen, though I also agree with her on many issues, would not be able to reach (Quirmbach’s) leadership levels right away at a time when it is crucial that our universities have such representation on key committees," Avalos said.

Quirmbach represents Ames, Kelley and the townships of Grant, Milford and Washington.